And So, I Wait
by Gaming Ikari
Summary: Tayuya survives her encounter with Shikamaru and Temari and discovers just what possessing a Will of Fire means. Rated for language... but you should know that. It's Tayuya.
1. Chapter 1

And So, I Wait

Chapter 1: Cacophony

oOo

Given the tens of thousands of residents in Konohagakure, it would seem like a simple task to just blend in. To no great surprise, this is not the case. The ANBU, viciously lethal and extraordinarily observant, were each assigned to a six-hundred to eight-hundred person "block" which they were responsible for observing. The areas overlapped, meaning that two, sometimes even three ANBU made notes about the residents. Even if they never interacted with the residents, they knew them. Some of the more whimsicle members of the elite body even gave some of the more notable members of their block nicknames.

New arrivals were, of course, noted within hours. Not a single person took up residence in Konoha without at least four or five different ANBU noting their arrival and collaberating on an investigation into their motives, background, and possible skills. Sometimes a relatively complete portofolio was assembled within a day's time. New arrivals were also officially welcomed, the smiling, vested-Chuunin residents making their neighbours feel at home in the vast streets. These Chuunins "happened" to run into the arrivals as a matter of course, introducing themselves and explaining their job and training to the fresh citizens.

It should surprise nobody that Konoha has the lowest crime rate in the world. Would-be entrepreneurs of the unlawful side of life are quickly and quietly encouraged to move on. Those that insist on staying are relocated to the country border. No doubt policies are in place to deal with those foolish enough to return, but nobody has been that foolish in recent history.

Thus, Konoha has the distinction of being one of the only hidden villages of the major five powers which is nearly impossible to infiltrate. This is directly in spite of the fact that it is also the largest hidden village. There are other hidden villages which are impossible to infiltrate, but that is only due to the fact they're too small for an insertion to be successful.

I knew all of this. I'd been briefed extensively on Konoha prior to Lord Orochimaru's attempt to destroy the place. I knew what it meant to be left behind in enemy territory. I knew what it meant to stay behind and fight that too-young man in the chuunin vest, to allow the Uchiha to go on without me. Even if I won, whatever pursuit followed this advanced force would claim me even if I wasn't defeated by the pineapple-haired kid.

And I honestly wasn't sure, going into that battle, which of us would succeed. From the records I'd studied, we were being chased by four genin and a chuunin so new to the vest that the title was little more than a formality. Those five bastards against the four trusted to protect Orochimaru's life while he killed the strongest enemy our master had.

Even if I'd never shown it, I'd become numb to the shock by the time Sakon and Ukon dropped off. Genin on paper, but I'll swear to my dying day that that idiot Kabuto misclassified their strengths. Any two of us should have been able to kill them all. Any one of us should have been able to slow them enough for the rest of us to escape. To bleed a member in an escape attempt every time the group caught up, then learn it was only one genin who remained behind to forestall one of the Sound elite: It was too much to bear.

We helped kill the Third Hokage. Yet Four genin and a chuunin nearly killed us all. Hell, even years later, it's galling to learn that two genin matched two members of our force in a one-on-one fight. No. Three genin. I've learned enough to have no illusions about the outcome of Uzumaki Naruto's fight with any one of us, had it come to that.

I still remember asking myself how it could have possibly happened, staring one leaf genin and one leaf chuunin in the face. All alone. And when the chuunin decided to hang back and stall me, allowing a genin, technically a subordinate, to race ahead...

I knew the truth:

The chuunin was the one their village put in charge.

But Naruto... That blue-eyed little jerk was their leader.

Through words, not actions, he dragged the ninja around him to extraordinary heights. Allowed them to face down foes capable of defeating two leaf jounin in one on one fights and succeed, at least enough to allow their comrades to press on with their mission.

I faced down my foe. I take a small measure of satisfaction, even to this day, that I'm the only one of my group to face down my one foe with success. Sakon and Ukon hardly count, so I find it hard to blame that idiot with the dog for losing. Those two linked morons were enough to overcome even the Uchiha, and he was supposed to be some fancy shit. He was supposed to be the only one of his class worth a look.

Supposed to. Fucking Kabuto.

We were supposed to succeed. We weren't supposed to have any problems. We weren't supposed to be wiped out to a man, with only one of us surviving four whole genins and their chuunin leader due to a trick of fate. None of were supposed to die ensuring Orochimaru's bright, shining future.

It was those thoughts which consumed me, crawling through the forest. I lost my forehead protector long ago in the crawl, my waistband similarily snagged by undergrowth as I forged my will to moving one arm foreward, digging in, and dragging myself another eight inches. I lost track of how long I'd been crawling.

Day turned to night, then night turned to day. Still, I slowly dragged myself eight inches after another eight inches away from my enemies and towards my master.

I don't know how long I crawled along the road. I suppose I crawled across it, and in my pain-maddened fever, convinced myself it was easier to follow it than fight my way through Konoha's undergrowth.

It was that bad decision which saw me picked up. It was that decision which lead me to meet the man who killed my comrades. He wasn't the one to wield the blade, but I slowly learned that it was he who forged the will of every man on his team.

I'll never forget the day I met Uzumaki Naruto.

oOo

Author's Notes:

This seems like a good place to stop for now. The concept was thoroughly inspired by The Melody of The Fox (which is wonderful, and you should go read right the hell now), though I'd like to think that I'll distance myself from that story in the details.

I always felt that the Sound Four were interesting characters who were unfortunately killed off before their time. Then again, Kishimoto manages to do that with a LOT of characters.

So I'll explore Tayuya. I've already worked out the outline, and I'll probably have the second chapter up within hours. And sorry, no appreciable progress on An Unforeseen Consequence. Though if you're a fan of me doing fanart for other authors, I've got something up for one of my favourite Ranma ½ fanfics in my profile.

Sorry.

Cheers,

Gaming Ikari


	2. Chapter 2

And So, I Wait

Chapter 2: Preliminary Strains

oOo

I was weak beyond comprehension when the merchant caravan found me. Truth be told, by that time I thought I'd crawled into Lord Orochimaru's arms, that it was his warm embrace that I felt pulling me down. I fought the ones who tried to pull me away. In my fevered state, I had no idea they were pulling me from death's door. It was thier luck and my salvation that I was too weak to do anything but fight back feebly.

My apprehension grew as I grew more lucid, realized where I was headed. I tried to escape several times, though between my injuries, my fever, and my panic... I barely made it beyond the wagon's door before being returned to my bed.

To my dying day, I count it as a kindness that the caravan master claimed me as his sick niece, being returned to his sister in Konoha. I was bundled to a tucked-away paradise, a woman a decade and handful of years older than me watching over me as I recovered from grevious injuries inflicted against me by the very ninja now tasked with protecting my life. Most interesting to me, the young woman took me on as her charge without a second thought.

Trusting fool.

As I lay in the soft bed, slowly recovering, I couldn't help but wonder at my luck. I was under the grid. I'd been planted in Konoha's citizenship successfully. I could become the perfect spy for Lord Orichimaru, subtly feeding him intel which would allow him to crush these stupid bastards the next time he raised his mighty hand.

I was in the ideal position to do it. I was an average, ordinary citizen. I'd somehow crawled my way under their radar and into redemption.

And like always, Uzumaki Naruto managed to fuck up a perfectly good plan.

oOo

As "Saiyuna", I had access to everything I needed to bring about Konoha's destruction. I had access to a ink-brush, paper, and international mail. Despite the lack of feeling in my legs, all it would take was one letter to render the mighty country low, on it's knees. I would be the victim that slipped through it's cracks to victimize it.

Except for him.

I remember the day I was conscious enough to risk writing a letter, to risk beginning to wheel myself down the laneway towards the mailbox. All I had to do was drop it in, and I'd fulfilled my duty. I'd helped my Lord win his eternally-waged war against the hidden leaf.

My eyes focused on the mailbox, I didn't expect resistance as I slowly wheeled myself towards my target. Two hundred yards. I couldn't help but remember how my team had been wiped out. Duty overrode all. One hundred and fifty yards. Lord Orochimaru. The man who gave me everything. The least I could give him was a couple hundred more feet. One hundred yards. My goal was in sight. Nothing could stop me now.

Most certainly not a helpful pair of hands on my wheelchair.

"Sorry, Oneesan. Do you mind if I help?" The voice is familiar, even if the tone is not. My hands drop from my wheels as I twist to look into the bane of my mission, bright blue eyes sparkling in the bright sunlight I've got no words, and I can't help but marvel at how Uzumaki Naruto wheels me within twenty feet of my objective... only to be distracted by a bunch of children playing a silly game.

Ten seconds, and my goal is completed. I just need to raise my hands to my wheels.

And yet I can only watch as the man who spelt the doom of my closest comrades joins in a silly game of tag with the ninja-wannabes of his village. He flits among them like a shadow, yet never places himself beyond their hope of catching. He laughs with them as they miss him by a fraction of a hair, smiling at their promises to redouble their efforts. He uses no clones to distract the annoying brats, uses no Genjutsu to deceive them. He actually wastes the little free time a ninja capable of matching Kidimarou in one on one combat has to play with these brats.

I've seen Kidimarou fight. I've seen some of what this blond can do... and the sight of him playing with a bunch of undersized punks holds me entranced.

"Sorry, Oneesan. I think we missed the last mail pick-up. I'll be by tomorrow morning to make sure you deliver your letter, okay?"

Saiyuna can't help but smile, and I hate her for it. She's wheeled back to her mother's home by the nice young ninja, laughing at his jokes and remembering the smiles of the children. She doesn't care that Lord Orochimaru's dreams lay in her hands, wheeling away from the mailbox. All she has to do is drop the letter in.

Saiyuna can't help but agree with him: The letter can wait.

Once I've been returned to that weak caravan master's sister's home, I weep. How weak am I becoming?

oOo

Author's Notes:

One thing that's bothered me about the many Tayuya/Naruto pairings out there is how quickly Tayuya becomes a Leaf-lover. Most of the time, it's a token "Well, I was a sound-nin" before Naruto overwhelms her with his "OMG, Naruto!" aura.

I decided to explore the other end of that. And as I mentioned in An Unforeseen Consequence, just because I _label _a story Ino/Naruto (or in this case, Tayuya/Naruto), that doesn't mean that's going to be the end destination of the plot. It just means that that's the central theme.

And I apologize slightly about the length, but I'm working from a VERY strict outline.

Cheers,

Gaming Ikari


	3. Chapter 3

And So, I Wait

Chapter 3: Prelude to a Masterpiece

oOo

The next day, we miss the mail call when Naruto is distracted by a trio of academy students, apparently students he's met before. Watching him give them pointers is tragically hilarious. He brashly tells them that even if a "creep" like Orochimaru shows up, they shouldn't surrender their pride as ninja. I quietly laugh, thinking about what would happen if Orochimaru ever fought this guy.

I happened to mention it, when the orange-clad genin was wheeling me back to my "mother's".

"I've actually fought Orochimaru," the blond finally admitted, and my eyes found his. Despite years of training, despite my own fervant belief in Lord Orochimaru's infallibility, I see no lies in his eyes as he continues. "I've met him twice in battle. Both times, he won, but I survived. The next time we meet, I'll win. I need to save Sasuke."

And despite my inflexibile belief in my lord, Saiyuna agrees with him. His eyes show the horror of someone who knows exactly what it is to fight my master, and he is honestly looking forward to his next fight. He wants to clash with my master, fist on fist, his chakra against the Snake Sannin's.

He doesn't just want to spirit Sasuke away... He wants to steal him right from in front of my master's face, rob my Lord's prize from right in front of him.

Saiyuna is amazed. Tayuya shivers, wanting to run screaming into the night,

I've felt my master's chakra just once, and the feel of it was terrible. It was like a wet, heavy wool cloak draped across my senses. It blinded me with fear and made me want to just flee, writhing and just hoping to throw that feeling off.

The thought of someone willing to face that for anyone, it amazes Saiyuna. It's pretty fucking impressive to me, too. As much as I don't want it to. As much as I hate it. For all his faults, this blond has some balls. And watching him with all of those kids, I have to admit he's got a lot more heart than I'd thought anyone in the hidden leaf could have.

Saiyuna doesn't deliver her letter for a second day.

I don't care.

oOo

The second shock comes not from Naruto himself, but from a casual movie rental.

Like most girls, Saiyuna was a pretty big fan of Yuki-hime and her companions. Screw it. I liked watching the movie, screw anyone who says anything otherwise. The story was desperate and uplifting, a true tale of someone fighting against the odds to win through for everything that was right and just.

So what if I was a ninja of the sound? I was still a girl, damn you!

Saiyuna, like other girls, heard the stories about how the second movie nearly got cancelled. I was surprised when Sakura, my caretaker's habitual shadow, grew bored when discussing the sequel. Until she produced the damning photo, that is.

The rumours had Yuki-hime's actor being played by the actual princess of the Hidden Snow, Kazahana Koyuki. The wildest of them had a trio of Konoha genin facing off against the Hidden Snow elite, with one of the Konoha genin (and not his jounin sensei!) facing off against Kazahana Dotou and finishing the bastard all by himself!

Then Sakura showed me a picture of Yuki-hime herself kissing an injured Naruto on the cheek whilst the latter was injured, in a hospital bed. I was already numb by the time the movie was released on DVD. When Naruto, Sakura, and Shikamaru returned from another mission claiming to have saved the world from an oppresive regime I already believed.

Because I remembered.

Because... I knew.

Kazahana Dotou was rated at the same ranking as Lord Orochimaru himself. My Lord was infinitely smarter and more skilled, but with that chakra armour the Snow Ninja was equipped with, he stood on equal ground with the most elite.

And in glorious widescreen with 5-speaker surround sound , I could watch him defeated by a **genin** any time I felt like watching it. The documentary played it up like Naruto was the driving force behind the expidition, but I knew better.

He was just one third of a trio. I didn't need to hear of the Gelel cult's leader to know that Sakura and Shikamaru performed above and beyond their duty to quell the nation-wide rebellion. No matter how powerful he was, Naruto was just one boy. His companions were just as extraordinary as he was. Together they'd changed the face of history.

For Saiyuna and Tayuya, it was a relavation.

For Naruto, it was just another mission. Even as he packed to go on another, Saiyuna tried to show him that he was being used. I agreed. His power was too special, too unique, to throw at every country in peril. What business of Konoha's was it if another country went to hell?

I've never felt smaller than the time he turned to me and gave me his response.

"Konoha depends on every other country. In a way, we keep the world safe. It's my duty to make sure that the world is as safe as I can make it... righ, Saiyuna?"

How could I argue against the logic that lead the youth before me to face down my lord in one on one combat? Even considering my own loyalties, I had to acknowledge his sheer audacity. No other ninja could possibly pull off the sort of victories his team achieved with him as their leader. In three missions beyond his country's borders, Naruto had freed three countries from opression and forged a powerful alliance with the new leaders.

Even as an unquantifiable variable, he was an irrefutable element of his country's political makeup. Saiyuna pondered the inexplicable miracle that was a ninja who could retire at fifteen years old, and have his achievements lauded from one end of the world to another.

Tayuya wondered just how much further he would grow.

As he bid me farewell before a three year training journey, I knew I couldn't mail my letter. Not without seeing him one more time.

oOo

Author's Notes:

Continuing on...

Look, I've written three chapters in a night. How much more Authors Notes can you expect?

Cheers,

Gaming Ikari


	4. Chapter 4

And So, I Wait

Chapter 4: An Awaited Performance

oOo

Three years.

For three years, I've gainsayed what could be the most important letter in the Hidden Sound's history. For three years, I've played at being the weak-willed, gentle Saiyuna. For three long years I've negleted my fucking duty. I've walked by the mailbox dozens of times, running errands for my "mother" or on my way to my job as a store clerk. Yet I never did push the letter, hidden under my floorboards, determined to face down Naruto once more before I plunged his village into chaos.

I soon got a job helping a local girl, Karin, with her ninja tool shop... and as I handed some of the best-crafted weapons I've ever handled to my sworn enemies, I couldn't help but feel I was making a mistake. With a word from my l;ips, my lord could strike decisively. Yet... I never uttered it. Blond hair and blue eyes haunted me.

Fucking bastard. A few moments kindness, and he had me withholding information from Lord Orochimaru, keeping this entire god-damned village from annihilation. Nobody else in the whole world could have had the luck to meet me, and the kindness to delay me. One in a million odds, and he just happens to strike that one.

I had doubts, in the thousand days I spent in Konoha. Every time I began to doubt Naruto would ever show up again, the pink-haired bitch would show up to "check in on me" and further delay my letter. She laughed with me, watched movies with me... She seemed to be friends with me just because Naruto was friends with me. As if him deciding that I was worthy of his trust somehow made my worth a foregone conclusion.

Saiyuna loved the company. I secretly despised the way Sakura whittled down my resolve. Nobody but a weak, trusting Leaf ninja would have spent her free time trying to see a crippled girl walk once more. Certainly no sound-nin medic would have chosen to spend their free time rehabilitating me.

A small part of me was overjoyed, crying genuine tears of relief at the feel of the ground beneath my own two feet after years of nothing but a maddening numbness. I was no longer a useless cripple. I could be a ninja of the hidden sound once more. The only lingering mark that fierce battle left on me was a few small scars nobody would ever see.

Yet, despite my sworn loyalties to my Lord, my dead comrades, and my village... I couldn't bring myself to betray Naruto. Not unless I did it to his face. For everything he'd shown me, for everything he'd done, he deserved better than to be betrayed while his back was turned, while he was away from the people he'd sworn to protect. If Lord Orochimaru were to return and finish this village's destruction, the least I could do for that confusing bastard was make sure he was here to be destroyed along with it. He'd sworn to fight Lord Orochimaru and I'd feel like trash if I stole everyone he loved from him before he got his chance.

After all... What harm could a few years really do? My Lord is immortal, unchanging. He will continue to exist long after my bones have turned to dust. He has infinite patience and would not act on the information anyway. It took him nearly a decade to engineer that last, disastrous attack on Konoha, after all.

He'd want to wait until he could master the Uchiha's body before invading. I'd probably have been stuck here for three years whether or not I sent the letter right after Naruto left

Or at least, so I told myself.

oOo

Naruto's reappearance in Konoha hit me with all the intensity of a hurricane and proved to be just as sudden. I was restocking shelves in Karin's shop one moment, my back to the counter. The next moment as I turned to grab more shuriken from the counter, I was staring up at impossibly bright blue eyes framed by golden blond hair.

"Oneesan, you're out of your wheelchair!"

For a moment, I freeze... Even though recognition strikes immediately:

Few ninja have blond hair and blue eyes, and none but Uzumaki Naruto could possibly have the bad taste and sense to wear a fucking bright orange jumpsuit. Yet despite wanting to snap a retort, I'm too busy being amazed at just how much he'd changed.

The first thing I notice is his height. Before, he'd been shorter than me by a bit. Not much, but just enough to differentiate. Now... Now, he stood a full head taller than me and looked to have a few more inches to grow. It gave him a more commanding presence than I thought I could associate with the large-hearted punk.

The second thing I noticed was his expression and his posture. Both indicated a much-increased maturity, the sort which only came from hard experience. My senses and training still told me that the man in front of me was a stupid moron who'd walk into any trap I cared to set, but my gut now told me that he'd probably escape unscathed.

The third thing I noticed was that my jaw was hanging open like a yokel's. My teeth clacked as I snapped it shut, falling back into a smile as Saiyuna felt joy at an old friend's return. We talked as he grabbed a pouch of kunai, and before I realized I'd forgotten to confess, he was gone. For three years I'd waited to tell him I was going to destroy everything he loved, and in two seconds he'd dashed the thought from my mind with a smile.

I told Karin I needed to take the rest of the day off, and she just smiled and nodded. Happy to make life a little bit easier for someone else, just like any other person in Konoha. I only stopped briefly to retrieve my flute from my mother's house before I began my hunt.

I needed to find that fucking bastard before the day ended. I couldn't survive another day in this place.

oOo

I considered myself lucky to trail my sunny-haired target to a place where I could confront him alone. It had only taken me minutes to locate him. Konoha was large, but a skillful ninja traversing the rooftops can search most common meeting places very quickly. Identifying my foe was made doubly simple by the bright fucking orange he always wears.

No, the problem was finding a time when the bastard wasn't surrounded by other ninja. Any time he stopped for a moment, people swarmed to him to welcome him back, wish him well and exchange a few words. It went on for hours. He would take to the rooftops in a flash of yellow and orange, then leap down to speak with one person or another and spend another half a fucking hour talking.

The sun had nearly set when he finally stopped, pausing in a small clearing in the woods.

"Saiyuna, why are you following me?" He didn't turn to face me.

Saiyuna can't prevent a tear from escaping while I searched for words.

"My name is Tayuya," I finally said. He turned to face me, dawning comprehension making his face a mask of horror. He flinches as badly as if I'd actually struck him with one of Jirobou's devestating taijutsu strikes. Saiyuna chokes out a sobt as I growl, "I'm going to watch this village burn with Lord Orochimaru's light. I couldn't do it before you returned. And now, you have to die so that my master can triumph."

"Saiyuna?" Despair-tinged eyes searched mine as his voice trembled.

His hesitation gives me the only opening I need. My genjutsu trapped his mind as his body toppled limply to the lay on the soft grass below. Saiyuna can't help but deny the sight of arguably one of the mightiest ninja in Konoha defeated by such a simple trick. I know that his weakness, his trust, is the reason I have won.

I pull one of Karin's kunai from my belt pouch as I approach the unconscious man in front of me.

oOo

Author's Notes:

Emporium Karin was a shop from the awesome PS2 Naruto RPG. Yeah, it's a confusing reference, given the relatively recent debut of another Karin in the Kishiverse.

Tayuya says fuck you. Tayuya also says I should write a full-length fic and mess with everyone that way, so consider yourselves lucky it's nowhere near April now that the thought's taken me. I've been tempted to write a Karin/Naruto fic about the RPG character just to mess with people using the search engine.

I may still do it.

Random note: I actually looked up their respective heights for Naruto's growth. Also, Stunna-kun's hit the nail on the head with the Tayuya-Saiyuna thing.

Cheers,

Gaming Ikari


	5. Chapter 5

And So, I Wait

Chapter 5: Reprieve

oOo

His skin was tightly pulled by the angle at which his head had come to rest. The lightest pressure would rupture a major artery, spilling his lifeblood across the forest floor, eliminating one of the few ninja in Konoha capable of facing my Lord face to face. The elimination of a man like Naruto should have had me trembling with excitement.

Saiyuna was trembling. But I felt no joy as I approached.

I knelt by the youth laying defenseless in front of me, kunai held ready. One slight motion would end his life, end his might. He would be a corpse, instead of the indomitable threat he represented. Saiyuna allowed herself to rest her forehead on the blond boy's chest, weeping tears into that fucking bright orange. Saiyuna was weak... but I couldn't overpower her. After all this boy had done to protect his homeland, she couldn't just cut his throat in cold blood.

I stared down into closed eyes. In Genjutsu-induced sleep, he was totally relaxed. Someone so trusting shouldn't exist. He should have been killed on his first mission. No man this gentle and kind could possibly survive the dark existence of being a ninja. No man this kind could possibly exist in our blood-drenched world.

He'd been doomed the moment I became his opponent. He was one of the weak, meant to be exterminated like the open-minded idiot he was.

Saiyuna refused to accept it. And apparently, so had he.

Watching him, I made excuses. He would be trapped in my genjutsu for hours. For all the innocent lives he'd saved, for all the good he'd done in our shadow-blackened world, he deserved a few moments more of peace before I ended his tumultuous life. A man like him deserved the quiet, if only for a few moments in the company of a foe. Gods knew he had never had that peace in his waking moments.

I was still making excuses when he began to rouse, hours later. My hand had long ago become numb from the iron-hard grip I maintained on my kunai while I watched his slow, even breathing for all those scattered moments. His eyes fluttered, finding mine as he fought off the last, lingering effects of the genjutsu.

"Oneechan? You've... You've really given up Orochimaru?"

With those words my heart broke: I realized he'd known all along who I was. He'd known that I was Orochimaru's servant. Perhaps he'd not remembered my name, but he knew. And despite all of that, he'd spent his scarce free time joking around with me, carting me from one place to another in my wheelchair.

And if he'd known... So had Sakura. And despite the fact I was someone who'd sworn to see Konoha destroyed, despite the fact I'd helped kill one of the greatest men in the village's history, she'd not only trusted me, but restored me to my former deadliness based solely on this young man's trust.

Despite all this terrible shit, he'd willingly trusted his life to me, despite the fact I was his sworn enemy. And staring into those bright, fluttering blue eyes, I hated the fact he'd proven himself victorious against all odds once again. The purity of his actions made my Lord's goals tainted, just by simple comparison. He made me feel disgusted to wear the emblem of the hidden sound, made me feel dirty by being associated with them.

Somehow, he made Lord Orochimaru and his dreams seem impossibly wrong. He made me want to protect my adopted mother from my Lord's wrath, made me want to save the weaklings of his village from the revenge they deserved for following one who had cast out my mentor.

The blond bastard was totally helpless. My kunai trembled inches from his throat.

And right then, I remembered Kazahana Douto dying at the hands of a genin so that an oppressed country could flourish. I remembered that this fragile-seeming youth had carried his hopes and dreams to an entire country, fighting the greatest, the strongest, so that the tromped-upun could once again raise their heads to the sun without flinching.

People with hopes and dreams no greater than my own, freed by the helpless individual alive solely by my hesitation. People with no more ambition than love, a family, and the means to make both things their own. People just like I'd been before I'd been bitten by my Lord and survived the hideous odds to become one of the few capable of matching the most powerful ninja.

In another life, in another country... I could be just one of the thousands who owed their happiness to this man. Only my Lord's blind ambition made me his enemy. And if my Lord's ambition was only the happiness of his subjects, we would have never been enemies. It was only in threatening this blond's loved ones that I was thrust into conflict with him.

And I knew just how dangerous he was that the conflict made me feel guilty.

His power was not just his ability to fight, but his ability to inspire. He grabbed every ninja around him by the scruff, dragging them to extroadinary heights simply to try to match his own commitment to an ideal. His every action exemplified the concept of the Will of Fire. He couild not have been more a paragon of the concept if he'd been the one after which it was modelled.

Because he always strove to do more. He always needed to do better. Even in victory, he found reason for himself to do better. Any moment in which he achieved less than total victory was a complete loss for him. This was a man who'd defied a demon capable of rendering entire countries helpless, from a man who'd now fought my Lord Orochimaru three times and survived to tell the tale.

It was maddening to remember I'd once thought anyone who ever fought my Lord would be dead. He'd defied my Lord three times, each time proving my lord inexorably right in his caution: The Will of Fire is an incalculable threat to any plan.

The Will of Fire will drive a ninja to defeat a superior foe. It will drive him or her to face down opposition beyond imagination in defense of the people they have sworn to protect. It will drive them to pit a genin against a jounin, and drive that genin to prevail against experience, against strength, against fate. It is the reason that their country has risen from the clan wars of our world's history to become the strongest force in existence in four terribly short generations.

None dare face them, for to fight one Konohagakure ninja is to fight them all. Each one embodies the unstoppable might of their nation, an arrogant pride which has allowed three of their number (none ranked above CHUNIN!) to fight Akatsuki members and not only survive, but eliminate those members forever. It is that reason that the hidden leaf's emblem is considered a death mark by the lesser clans, who dare not confront any member of the village for fear of annihilation.

For Konoha is the only village which dares to pit genin against jounin and expects success.

With genin like Uzumaki Naruto, who could deny the strength of their will? By all rights, he was considered the least of them. Yet in spite of the technical allocation of his rank, he'd risen to become an example to them all.

I dropped the kunai from my trembling fingers. His disappointed eyes frightened me more than my Lord's most terrible wrath. Thus, I fled.

I fled from Uzumaki Naruto.

oOo

Author's Notes:

It might interest you that Winamp played Avril Lavinge's Girlfriend three times in a row (from a four hundred plus songlist) while I was writing this chapter. The odds, for those counting, are exactly one in seventy million, four hundred and forty four thousand, nine hundred and ninety seven.

Those odds are exactly the same as my chances of producing triplets, should I ever decide to have children. This fic has now made me eternally paranoid.

One more chapter, kiddies!

Cheers,

Gaming Ikari


	6. Chapter 6

And So, I Wait

Chapter 6: Coda

oOo

Time seemed to crawl by in the months upon months after I fled from Konoha. Another two years of spending my time in some trusting village, another two years of gathering fragments of information from a multitude of sources just to fill in the gaps. But... this time... I knew I wasn't doing it in service to my Lord. Hell, when I learned that the Uchiha had actually killed my master, I scarcely blinked.

It hadn't mattered to me. Not anymore.

Despite his promises, despite his airs, my master was just another petty fool killing innocent people for his own pride. For all his talk about how much the world needed to be changed, deserved to be changed, I knew now that it all hadn't mattered to him. One ruler would have replaced another. In the end, it would have been far worse for those under him. Certainly the Hidden Leaf's Hokage didn't need an endless supply of bodies and victims to perfect their Kinjutsu.

For all his talk about a better tomorrow, he'd only wanted a more comfortable today. He'd wanted to snag some place in history for himself, wanted to prove those who'd dared defy him wrong.

It really bothered me that that bastard Naruto had proven himself right once again: He'd sworn once that he'd beat my master. He managed it, but perhaps not in the way he once thought he would: He'd shown me what a selfless devotion to the innocent people in this world truly was. He made my master's petty grudge with the Hidden Leaf and how shallow it was, truly apparant. He forced me to betray my sworn oath because he had convinced me how utterly wrong it was for me to follow it.

Fucking jerk. Nobody else could possibly be so weak, yet so strong at the same time.

I still have a letter. One I've been meaning to mail for two long years. It has nothing to do with Orochimaru, or Konoha, or anything else. It's just an apology to the blond bastard. An explanation, a confession. Whatever. It held all my feelings about the jerk on paper so I wouldn't have to bury them in my heart.

Yeah, I'd gotten pretty good at the whole self-honesty thing. I still called myself Saiyuna, for nostalgia I guess, but I could admit how conflicted living in the Hidden Leaf had made me over those years. I could pretend all I wanted to back then about how it was just cover, but these days I knew: I'd inherited the Will of Fire from a certain blond bastard as strongly as anyone could and had the village been attacked during my stay, I would have leapt to it's defence as readily as any of the sworn ninja.

Then had to deal with the shitstorm that followed when an undocumented ninja appears in Konoha, but whatever... I knew I would have thrown that body off the bridge when I had it in my arms.

So, it was a shock to see a flash of orange and blond in my small village. I ducked into an alleyway before piercing blue eyes found me, and I knew I couldn't face him. Not yet. I focused my chakra, fine tuning my control to change my appearance. Red hair became brown, my eyes tilted, changed color. My skin took on a dusky hue as my tunic and pants changed into a tight-wrapped yakuta.

I also held a letter, which I slipped up my sleeve.

My heart plunged when I heard him ask for a red-haired girl with ninja training, but thankfully my friends in the village had been warned. They knew someone chased me, and they were willing to deflect strangers. A blank look met my target's quiery, and it surpised me just how much it hurt to see that blond boy's face fall.

I bumped into him, slipping the letter into his pocket.

He aplogized, and I briefly flashed him a smile as I moved past. The stupid shit hadn't even realized, of course. He probably wouldn't notice the letter until the next time he reached into his pocket. He really didn't belong in the world of ninjas, in a world where deception and betrayal are a fact of life. Yet he embodied a new path, a marked deviation which his village was slowly spreading with each new generation. A world-wide change Konoha had slowly been enforcing with an indomitable will ever since it's inception just five short generations ago.

Ninja who fought not for the highest bidder, but for the downtrodden and the oppressed. Ninja who would hurl themselves against impossible foes to save innocent lives. Ninja who would meet steel with steel and ninjutsu with ninjustu, backed by nothing more than something as intangible as the Will of Fire. Ninja who would defy the odds because the way the world worked seemed wrong to them, and they couldn't help but demand a change.

It was why I knew I couldn't let Naruto find me. Not yet. My mind reeled with all the good he'd already done in the world, and my imagination soared as I wondered just how much more good he could do. He shook the ground upon which he walked and I would prove to be the distraction which might be the difference between life and death for those he protected. I could be patient until the world adjusted to the blond tsunami, until the thousands of ninja finally acknowledged that the world would change to his vision whether they fucking liked it or not.

He had a destiny to change the world. I had no place in his life, not yet. Not until he found a measure of calm. Not until he's achieved his dream, until he can pass on the incredible burden he's shouldered to the next generation. I could accept that happily, dwelling in my small village as news slowly drifted in, slowly brought hope for better days to everyone.

And so, I wait.

oOo

Author's Notes:

A coda is a passage in music which brings a piece to the end. I feel it's a fitting title for this chapter. I've got an epilogue planned, but that's the extent of what's left. And yes, I had the final words of this story planned when I picked the title. I can think ahead, whatever Lady Shinimegami says.

I feel the need to defend my decision about the length of the chapters here, since I normally don't keep things this short. However, this was intentional. Each chapter represents a lot of emotion and action, and this story would have been very, very dense if each sequence weren't broken into digestible pieces.

Cheers,

Gaming Ikari


	7. Epilogue

And So, I Wait

Epilogue: A Discovered Letter

oOo

The blond man carefully took the letter from his pocket, eyes slowing tracing the faded characters on the endlessly folded paper. In the increasingly common moments of calm, he found himself reading it from time to time, though he could have recited it in his sleep.

He lay it on his desk, smoothing it flat.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Naruto,

This letter will find you someday. I'm pretty sure about that. It's too important to me not to. I don't know when you'll get this, but if you're reading it I finally mailed it to you. I'm sorry it took so long, if it did.

Where should I start? I don't even know where I could. I can't fit my entire life story into one letter and there are some things I'm not ever going to tell anyone. I guess I should get my apology out of the way.

I'm sorry I lied to you. I'm sorry I decieved you. And most of all, I'm sorry I ran away like a scared little bitch instead of staying to face you and Pinky, now that you two know the truth. Speaking of Pinky, I still owe her for my legs. One day I'll pay her back. Somehow.

I also owe you. Before I met you, I really thought Orochimaru was the future. Before I met you, I believed in him and his dreams. But you, you showed me how wrong he was and how wrong I was for believing in him.

Wave Country. Sand Country... or I guess they're calling it Spring Country, now. All of them are places which you and your band of misfits have changed for the better. And with that thick head and open heart of yours, I'm sure there are going to be plenty more places for you to change for the better. Your life's been so insane already, and I'm sure it's only going to get crazier.

And that's why I'm avoiding you. You've got too much to do, still. When your life calms down a bit, I'll find you and apologize to you and Sakura face to face. If you can get good enough at Genjutsu to see through mine, you might find me first... but it's not fucking likely.

Hurry up and finish changing the world, Naruto. I'm waiting.

Saiyuna-neesan

P.S. I still can't believe you finished a member of Akatsuki. Good job. Same goes for Pinky and the Shadow prick. Do my a favour, though: Just stop wearing that fucking orange. You wouldn't believe how much attention you're calling to yourself.

___________________________________________________________________________________

A sharp knock on his door lifted his gaze, and Kotetsu stuck his head in the door.

"Naruto? There's a redheaded woman here to see you, she says you've been expecting her. She's got a real foul mouth on her, too," The older jounin stated, his eyes doubting,

"I have, Kotetsu," the Rokudaime replied with a broad grin, carefully folding the letter and putting it back in his pocket. "I have."

oOo

Author's Notes:

You could have imagined whatever you liked for the letter Tayuya slipped Naruto in Coda. Or, you can read the letter as I've envisioned it. That decision I leave to you, my dear readers.

For those complaining about the end, I'd like to point out that "And So, I Wait" as a title is not a sign of Warm and Fuzzy Feelings to come. Would you read a story titled "Naruto Dies Lonely in a Ditch" with a positive outlook? I stand by the romance tag: Tayuya clearly has some strong feelings for Naruto, and the implication that he's been searching for her for two years does tend to imply a small amount of reciprocation, yes?

You fuckers want WAFF, search for it. It's easy enough to find, and frankly, largely interchangeable. I generally only tolerate it when it's accompanied by a good story before and afterwards. Admittedly, I can do Warm and Fuzzy Feelings very well. Hell, I gave Lady Shinimegami a total fangirlasm via WAFF with LH&R when I was making her read that story, however subtlely I inserted it.

If you'd like to continue the discussion, I'll happily get much more verbose. PM me.

Cheers,

Gaming Ikari


End file.
